Rudrean and Aelira went deep while a magi-tech eye followed them, showing them on the dragonfly aircraft’s screen.

With Expert Eyes activated, Rudrean and Aelira headed toward the treasure by following Lyra’s orb.

The coldness was increasing abnormally as they neared it.

They could see with more clarity and over a greater distance with Expert Eyes, and it revealed the threat right away.

There were over a hundred monsters, a school of exotic fish sizzling with lightning and icy blue sparks. Each one was the size of a shark but had unique physiology, with a thin exoskeleton of solid ice.

The coldness was also extremely high here, further diminishing the power of Phoenix Flame.

[Isalyn: This is a bit tricky. All these fish are boosted by the power of whatever resource is here, and their number is too great.]

’Yeah, it seems we have to upgrade ourselves a bit,’ Rudrean said.

Above, Ryzen, Rivera, and Lyra also frowned at the number of monsters.

"This seems difficult," Lyra muttered. "Maybe I can create something right now to help them."

"I’ll go and help them. My Starlight Stream has the effect to boost magic and overall speed if I buff them with it, so it will make them faster and stronger."

Rivera also jumped into the pond. Enveloping herself in a stream of golden light, she surged toward the duo by controlling her Starlight Stream.

But just as she left, Rudrean and Aelira brought out the big guns, literally.

Rudrean brought out the second talent that Isalyn had and synchronized it.

[Isalyn: Perfect. Now annihilate them from afar. I acquired this Bloodbound Armory talent in a Secret Realm, and it pairs devastatingly well with Heavenfall Wind.]

Rudrean and Aelira each held exotic crimson machine guns powered by Heavenfall Wind.

[Bloodbound Armory | 3-star]

This was an original 3-star, as in SSS-rank talent, so it was already very powerful.

Its effects were simple. At the cost of 10% of the user’s blood, it could create a weapon of their design or one already stored within it. Not only that, Bloodbound Armory could tune with another element in their arsenal, allowing the weapons to use that element as fuel for their ballistics.

The weapons also had 100% adopted stats from their users, making them extremely powerful.

Isalyn already had some powerful blueprints, so Rudrean and Aelira chose one called Bullet Hell Machine Gun, specialized for group annihilation.

"Let’s go."

The guns powered up with their mana and unleashed bullets of Heavenfall Wind, each weighing 10 kilograms, enhanced further by the weight-increasing effect of Heavenfall Wind.

They tore through the water, leaving visible vacuum trails, and pierced through the tough exterior of the fish that were over a hundred meters away.

Rudrean’s bullets were twice as fast due to the effects of his Arcane Path’s first rune, and those bullets pierced through all the fish before striking the pond’s floorbed.

The heavy, condensed wind bullets of Heavenfall Wind, paired with the sheer magical potency of Rudrean and Aelira amplified by their Arcane Paths, annihilated the school of fish so quickly that by the time Rivera arrived, all of them were already dead.

Rudrean — [ +78 Path Exp ] — [ 7 x Blank Runes (B-rank) ]

Aelira — [ +38 Path Exp ] — [ 3 x Blank Runes (B-rank) ]

At the spot on the bottom of the pond, which had been hidden by the group of fish, stood a mystical glowing tree. It was icy and crackling with faint dark blue lightning.

"You killed all of them so fast?!" Rivera was shocked. "How?"

The machine guns had already dispersed, so she didn’t see them.

"Hehe, you’ll find out later." Aelira chuckled teasingly.

"Come on, that’s terrible suspense." Rivera pouted. "Seriously, it’s insane."

Rudrean was already at the bottom, next to the mystical tree.

It had three glistening fruits with exotic blue and golden patterns.

[Ice Blitz Fruits | 3-star]

[Isalyn: Remove the fruits using a wind pocket and make a precise cut at the stem’s end so that it doesn’t leak any essence inside. It’s crazy to have three fruits, by the way. Four years of cultivation by the fish bore a good result for us, haha.]

Rudrean carefully cut the fruits and stored them in his storage ring.

...

Outside, the leaderboard shifted.

It had not even been an hour since the event started, so no one expected any change in the leaderboard so soon.

"What the hell is with those points?"

"Team RuRaRyRiRa already got 9000 points?!"

"Either they acquired a bunch of low-grade resources, or they found a few high-quality ones."

The general viewers didn’t know, but the faculty of Rainstar Institute knew what resources were acquired once they were stored in the rings they had distributed.

"Ice Blitz Fruits? The kind that can be used in alchemy to create pills that awaken a magic talent?"

"Essence-type resources are already so rare, but to acquire three fruits like that... their luck is off the charts."

The interesting thing was that participating teams couldn’t see the leaderboard, so they wouldn’t know what rank they were in.

This ensured that everyone always tried their best to acquire resources and last longer in the event, as it would last for five days before all teams were forcefully ejected from the Secret Realm.

...

Rudrean, Aelira, and Rivera returned to the dragonfly aircraft.

Lyra began moving again while Rudrean took out the fruits.

"Here, take one." Rudrean handed a fruit to Ryzen. "Eat it and see if you awaken a talent."

"W-what? Really?!" Ryzen was taken aback and held back his joy. "But it was you who acquired it."

"We are a team, so it’s better that we all progress." Rudrean smiled.

Aelira nodded and grinned cheekily. "Exactly. Also, we are not lacking in talents or anything else."

"But eating it raw is dangerous." Lyra blinked. "It’s a 3-star fruit. It can annihilate your body."

"W-what?" Rudrean was startled. "I didn’t know that."

[Isalyn: That’s true, but it’s fine. Nothing will happen to him while both of you have Phoenix Flame to heal him. Let him eat one. In fact, if he endures and attunes his will with the essence of the fruit, he will 100% awaken a talent. Currently, he is the weakest, and he needs a good talent, so his desperation will give him that boost.]

’Oh.’

"Don’t worry, eat it." Aelira grinned. "We have enough power to keep him intact."

"Yes." Rudrean nodded as wisps of Phoenix Flame hovered around him. "Our Phoenix Flame has powerful healing properties."

"In that case, it’s worth trying." Lyra nodded.

Rivera looked at Ryzen and grabbed his hand. "Do it. Magic responds to both knowledge and will. You can do it."

Ryzen took a deep breath.

"Wait, let me park the aircraft somewhere. It might not be able to endure the process." Lyra looked at the screens as she increased speed.

"There’s another strong magic reading around sixty kilometers ahead. It’s a place with gigantic trees and dominated by powerful aerial monsters. But the trees have hidden hollows, so we can rest and hide there."

"Sounds good." Rudrean nodded. "We also want to slot and combine the runes we got. It will give us a further boost."

Rivera and Ryzen nodded.

They also needed to kill monsters so they could acquire Path Exp and obtain more runes.